FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   >>  
the brake: _Chirp_, _chirp_, it goes; nor waits an answer long; And that small signal fills the grove with song. Thus on my pipe I breathed a strain or two; It scarce was music, but 'twas all I knew. It was not music, for I lacked the art, Yet what but frozen music filled my heart? _Chirp_, _chirp_, I went, nor hoped a nobler strain; But Heaven decreed I should not pipe in vain, For, lo! not far from there, in secret dale, All silent, sat an ancient nightingale. My sparrow notes he heard; thereat awoke; And with a tide of song his silence broke. XX TO ---- I knew thee strong and quiet like the hills; I knew thee apt to pity, brave to endure, In peace or war a Roman full equipt; And just I knew thee, like the fabled kings Who by the loud sea-shore gave judgment forth, From dawn to eve, bearded and few of words. What, what, was I to honour thee? A child; A youth in ardour but a child in strength, Who after virtue's golden chariot-wheels Runs ever panting, nor attains the goal. So thought I, and was sorrowful at heart. Since then my steps have visited that flood Along whose shore the numerous footfalls cease, The voices and the tears of life expire. Thither the prints go down, the hero's way Trod large upon the sand, the trembling maid's: Nimrod that wound his trumpet in the wood, And the poor, dreaming child, hunter of flowers, That here his hunting closes with the great: So one and all go down, nor aught returns. For thee, for us, the sacred river waits, For me, the unworthy, thee, the perfect friend; There Blame desists, there his unfaltering dogs He from the chase recalls, and homeward rides; Yet Praise and Love pass over and go in. So when, beside that margin, I discard My more than mortal weakness, and with thee Through that still land unfearing I advance; If then at all we keep the touch of joy, Thou shalt rejoice to find me altered--I, O Felix, to behold thee still unchanged. XXI The morning drum-call on my eager ear Thrills unforgotten yet; the morning dew Lies yet undried along my field of noon. But now I pause at whiles in what I do, And count the bell, and tremble lest I hear (My work untrimmed) the sunset gun too soon. XXII I have trod the upward and the downward slope; I have endured and done in days before; I have longed for all, and bid farewell to hope; And
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   >>  



Top keywords:
morning
 

strain

 

Praise

 
Nimrod
 
hunting
 
mortal
 

weakness

 

closes

 

trembling

 

margin


discard
 
homeward
 

trumpet

 

returns

 

unworthy

 

perfect

 

friend

 

hunter

 

flowers

 

sacred


Through
 

dreaming

 

desists

 
unfaltering
 

recalls

 
unchanged
 
untrimmed
 

sunset

 

tremble

 

whiles


longed

 

farewell

 
endured
 
upward
 

downward

 
rejoice
 

altered

 

advance

 

unfearing

 

behold


unforgotten

 

undried

 
Thrills
 

thought

 
thereat
 
sparrow
 

nightingale

 

silent

 
ancient
 

silence